Block earns support to investigate image-guided drug delivery

Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics Associate Professor Walter Block received a $158,000 grant from the Kinetics Foundation to develop real-time image guidance technology using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for applications in drug delivery in the brain. The technology uses the inherent contrast mechanisms in MRI to guide catheters to specific brain locations and monitor the administration of therapeutic agents that cross the blood-brain barrier by using a pressure-driven infusion technique known as convection-enhanced delivery. The goal is to simplify the MR-guided procedures while increasing accuracy and precision of the infusions.